


The way back home

by stinkyworms



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Gen, Juno is not happy, Past Abuse, its netherworld time baby, kidnapping children is not how you take your anger out juno, lets start a socialist revolution in the netherworld
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24737341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stinkyworms/pseuds/stinkyworms
Summary: Juno succeeds in taking Lydia back to the Netherworld with her. Now they need to get her back, but things are never that easy. Especially when demons are involved.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz
Comments: 20
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *slaps my own ass* This badboy can fit so many WIPs in her.
> 
> This is an AU where Juno succeeds in dragging Lydia back to the Netherworld. It's gonna be tough to get her back, but the Undead Squad are up for it right? Right?

Adam felt like an idiot for assuming this would all be over once he had drawn that door. They were _so close._ Beetlejuice was almost through the door, and out of their lives. But of course, nothing was simple when Beetlejuice was involved.

And now this new demon, his _mother,_ had once again made Adam feel useless with her power. Beetlejuice had been strong, too strong for Adam and Barbara’s combined ghost powers to overcome. But Juno was _overwhelming._ Where Beetlejuice had pulled chains out of thin air to bind them, Juno had warped the whole house to immobilise its inhabitants. The floorboards beneath Adams feet had moulded and bent to keep him locked in place. Barbara, he could see, was currently locked by her wrists to the railing on the stairwell, above Beetlejuice, who was similarly trapped.

It might be a strong word, but Adam had decided he _hated_ demons.

“Back off mom!” Adam could hear Beetlejuice pleading.

Adam thought he had seen the full range of Beetlejuice’s outbursts, but this time he sounded genuinely scared. His voice was shaking, and he was squirming in place, trying to free his arms from the stairwell.

“I told you to shut up, Lawrence,” Juno waved her hand casually, and a metal gag appeared over Beetlejuice’s mouth, silencing him.

Juno turned her attention back to Lydia, who stood with her arms crossed, looking defiant. Adam would never understand teenagers.

“I’m not going to the Netherworld,” Lydia said, like she was facing off with her dad about going to afterschool classes and not a demon that wanted to drag her to hell, “I choose _life._ ”

Juno laughed, an awful cackling sound that hurt to hear. Adam noticed Beetlejuice shrinking away from her, like it was directed at him.

“You don’t get a choice, girl,” Juno said, raising her arm again.

Lydia gasped, her eyes rolling up to the back her head, and Adam knew what was happening immediately. Possession. The rest of the household had clearly come to the same realisation, as multiple people were now shouting their protests as Lydia began to jerkily move towards the entrance to the Netherworld. Adam closed his eyes and reached out with his mind towards Lydia, the way he had when he had taken over Charles’ dinner party, but another force slapped him away easily. When he opened his eyes again, Juno was stood at the door, smiling at him.

“You and your _wife_ ,” Junos spat the word, “Are overdue for processing. When you get to the Netherworld, make sure to give your names to my assistant. I want to handle your case _personally._ ”

And with that, Juno was gone, with Lydia in tow. As the door to the Netherworld sealed shut and became a wall again, the air pressure in the room changed and the house shifted back to its original form, freeing them. Adam heard Delia hit the floor with a thud and a yelp, and immediately moved to her side to help her up.

As Delia nodded gratefully at him, Adam heard a _crack_ from behind. He turned in time to see Beetlejuice sprawled on the floor, trying his best to scramble away from Charles, who was looming over him, fists clenched. Charles was too quick for the demon, and he bent down and grabbed Beetlejuice by the lapels of his jacket, hauled him to his feet and pinned him against the wall with such force that it knocked one of the hung up paintings to the floor.

“ _You._ This is _your_ fault, demon,” Charles’ voice was steady, but the rage seeped through, “Now my daughter, my _Lydia,_ is in that awful place and you. _You_ are going to take me to get her _back.”_

Charles punctuated the word _back_ by pulling Beetlejuice forward and slamming him into the wall again. Adam knew that ordinarily, Beetlejuice would have the power to throw Charles off him, and wouldn’t hesitate to. However, the demon seemed to be having some kind of panic attack. His eyes, fixed on the man looming over him, were wide and terrified, and his hair had turned to a stark white. He was babbling something back at Charles that Adam couldn’t hear from his position across the room, but it was clearly the wrong thing to say, as Charles reacted with a shout that made the demon shrink in his grip.

“No more _tricks,_ no more _games_ , demon _._ Lydia is in there, with that… with your… _Mother,”_ Charles shouted.

At this point, Adam made eye contact with Barbara, who was still on the stairwell. She looked scared, more scared than he had ever seen her. This prompted Adam to start moving. He walked towards Charles, his arms outstretched, until he was close enough to be besides Beetlejuice. Now that he could see Charles’ face, he could see the tears that had formed and made tracks down his cheeks. Adam put a hand on Charles’ shoulder and tried to speak as calmly as he possibly could, although he didn’t feel it at all.

“We’re going to get her back, Charles. You can’t go to the Netherworld, you’re alive, but we can. We will. Me and Barbara will go. We’ll get her back, I promise,” Adam said, trying to keep his voice soft and not as panicked as he felt.

Charles let go of Beetlejuice, who promptly slid down the wall to the floor and stayed there, his head down so Adam couldn’t see his face. Charles pulled Adam into a hug, and Adam could feel the other man shaking slightly, warmth radiating off him that almost made Adam feel like he was alive again.

“Please, _please,_ find her,” Charles said, his voice desperate in Adam’s ear.

Charles didn’t even know Adam and Barbara, they had never officially met. The few times the couple had interacted with Charles, he was mostly unaware of their presence. And now he was putting all his faith in these two ghosts to get his daughter back. The thought made Adam nauseous.

“We should go quickly,” Barbara said, now stood next to the wall Juno had disappeared into.

She was right. Nobody wanted to say it out loud, but they had no idea what would be waiting for them on the other side. They were completely out of their depth, and Lydia could be anywhere. They could be too late. Adam tried to push that thought out of his mind.

Charles let go of Adam, and he reached into his pocket to find the chalk he had used earlier. Moving to stand next to his wife, Adam took a breath he didn’t need, and began to draw a door. Just as he finished off, Barbara took his hand, and gave it a squeeze. She still felt icy cold, but Adam had gotten used to it by now. The cold had become comforting, even. He watched as she gave him a nod, and he raised his hand to knock.

“Wait,” Beetlejuice’s raspy voice called out behind them.

Everyone turned to look at the demon, who had managed to pick himself up off the floor. He had also, somehow, changed out of that bloodstained red suit and back into the ridiculous monochromatic one he had worn when Adam first met him. Beetlejuice shrunk a little under their gazes, but took a step towards them. Adam saw Charles ball one hand into a fist.

The demon continued, “You need me. You won’t be able to navigate the Netherworld by yourselves, you might just get lost and then you’ll never find Lyd- You’ll get trapped. I can guide you.”

Adam did what he always did when he wasn’t sure what to say, he looked to his wife. He could tell by Barbara’s expression that she was sceptical of Beetlejuice intentions. Adam couldn’t exactly blame her, he had done nothing but lie to and trick them since they had met him.

“Charles and Lydia got in and out okay,” Barbara countered.

“They got _lucky._ You take a wrong turn down there and you become some sandworms lunch, or worse,” Beetlejuice said, his face looked serious, “I don’t… I don’t want Lydia to be hurt, okay? Let me help.”

Adam watched Barbara as her expression softened. Adam felt her squeeze his hand. Out the corner of his eye, Adam could see Beetlejuice watching them intensely.

“Okay,” She said.

Beetlejuice sidestepped Charles to join them at the door. The demon took the initiative and knocked three times, leading to the familiar creaking and green light that accompanied opening a portal to the Netherworld. Beetlejuice grabbed hold of Adams hand, and Adam suspected that handholding wasn’t a necessity for travel to the Netherworld, but they had wasted enough time already. Anything could be happening to Lydia right now. Protesting about Beetlejuice’s boundary issues didn’t seem worth it. Especially because it never, well, worked.

Beetlejuice began moving towards the door, tugging Adam along with him. Adam made one look back at Charles, who was holding on to Delia, before stepping into the green light. Through the doorway, something he had only gotten a glimpse of earlier, was a long corridor, bathed in that oppressive green light.

Adam felt Barbara follow suit behind him, and as soon as she crossed the boundary into the Netherworld, the door slammed shut behind them. Adam turned to see that the door had disappeared, and in its place was just another stretch of corridor. The green light above them was flickering, like it was coming from cheap fluorescent bulbs and not supernatural source.

Beetlejuice, however, was not letting them enjoy the scenery, he was walking with purpose, tugging Adam along in his tight grip.

“Beetlejuice?” Adam said. His voice was quiet, but it reverberated around in the air.

Beetlejuice grunted in acknowledgement that he had heard, but didn’t slow his pace.

“Are we going to be able to get her back?” Adam asked. It was the question he was thinking since Juno had taken Lydia, but voicing it in front of Charles seemed wrong.

“We can get her back,” Beetlejuice said, too quickly.

“But will she be… Like us?” Adam asked.

He couldn’t bring himself to use the word _dead._ But Juno had taken issue with the fact that Lydia was alive, after all.

Beetlejuice finally stopped in his tracks, and turned to face Adam. He noticed that the tips of the demons hair had turned to violet, and his eyes were shining.

“If my mom wanted Lydia dead, she would’ve killed her on the spot and pulled her ghost back here,” Beetlejuice said. He looked down at his shoes, and his voice became a low growl, “She likes to punish people when they break the rules. She could’ve brought you down here too, but she didn’t.”

“Why not? How is giving us what we want punishment?” Barbara asked.

Beetlejuice made a frustrated noise, deep in the back of his throat, it was pretty obvious he didn’t want to have this conversation. He dropped Adam’s hand.

“Ghosts like you, who stay up there. They don’t last very long. They go crazy, being alone, and invisible, and trapped to a location. They end up getting themselves exorcised, usually. But mom’s probably hoping you will come crawling down here, begging for forgiveness. And it doesn’t matter if that takes a century, or two. It doesn’t matter to her. She’s playing the long game. With all of us,” Beetlejuice was still not looking at either of them.

Adam heard Barbara make a noise next to him. Beetlejuice looked up at her, and he looked embarrassed. It occurred to Adam that Beetlejuice had mentioned he had been trapped alone in the living world for a long time when they had first met. He wondered if his mother had anything to do with that.

The demon turned and started walking again at that same fast pace, leaving the Maitlands behind. Adam and Barbara had to almost jog to catch back up with him.

“We’ll get her back,” Beetlejuice repeated. He sounded more like he was saying it to himself than it was a reassurance to Adam and Barbara.

At the end of the corridor, was a door. Adam was sure he hadn’t seen it when they had begun their journey through the green corridor, but it seemed to suddenly exist before them. It looked like a regular office door, strangely juxtaposed against the nothingness of the corridor they were in. On the door, in a brass plaque, read ‘ _Netherworld Customs and Processing_ ’.

“We’re just going to walk in there?” Barbara asked, incredulous.

Adam had to agree with his wife, this sounded like a stupid idea.

Beetlejuice turned back to them, “No Babs, I’ve got a plan, obviously. Well, I mean, that plan mostly just involves walking in there. But my mom spends most of her time holed up in her office. So don’t worry. I know her assistant, me and him used to…”

Beetlejuice made a complicated gesture with his hands. Adam wasn’t sure what it was supposed to represent, but from the way Beetlejuice was waggling his eyebrows and leering at him, he could probably guess the context.

“But won’t she be expecting us?” Adam asked. Partly because it was a valid question, and partly because he wanted Beetlejuice to stop doing what he was doing with his hands, which had become so intricate it required two extra fingers to sprout from his left palm.

The demon dropped his hands, thankfully, “Nah. You heard what she said. She was threatening us. She’s not expecting a rescue attempt, because she thinks we’re too scared of her. Which we should be, actually.”

Adam wondered if Beetlejuice meant _I_ when he said _we._ Had Beetlejuice ever stood up to his mother before now? Possibly not, considering how easily she subdued him, and how his entire demeanour had changed the second she entered the picture. After everything Beetlejuice had put her through, did Lydia actually mean that much to him? Adam really didn’t know what was going through that demon’s mind, ever. Nothing he did seemed to make any sense. But they didn’t really have much of a choice right now to argue with him.

“Okay, were trusting you to know what you’re doing,” Adam decided, after a beat. Barbara didn’t protest, so he assumed she had come to the same conclusion.

Beetlejuice’s expression was similar to when the Maitlands had agreed to let him teach them how to scare. He looked grateful. The demon mumbled something in that same growl, too low for Adam to make out, then swung open the door.

The foyer to the Netherworld Customs and Processing _,_ as it turned out, was a waiting room. It reminded Adam of a doctor’s office, especially because most of the people around him looked… Ill, or dismembered, or otherwise not okay. He tried his best not to stare at the ghosts around him, focusing on the Beetlejuice’s back as he led them to the desk labelled ‘Information’ across the room, but he couldn’t help but think that maybe his and Barbara’s death were… Not so bad.

The information desk was shuttered up, but something like that had never stopped Beetlejuice. The demon rapped on it, loudly, causing others in the waiting room to give the group of newcomers annoyed looks.

The shutter flew open, revealing a woman with shocking red hair and green skin. She was wearing a sparkling red dress that matched her hair, and some kind of sash Adam couldn’t read past Beetlejuice’s bulk. Adam wondered if she was a demon, too, but she lacked the fangs he had seen on Beetlejuice and her mother. Maybe he was stereotyping.

Before the woman could say anything to them, Beetlejuice was already speaking.

“Who the hell are you? What happened to the other guy?” He asked.

Adam felt Barbara flinch, she could never stand being rude to service staff. The woman was clearly put off by Beetlejuice’s rudeness, but the polite smile didn’t leave her face. Clearly, working eternally in customer service had perfected her ability to not immediately murder the demon in front of her.

“The other guy… _Oh_ you mean _Michael_?” She asked, “You’re about 30 years too late, honey. His contract ended. I heard he does freelance now. I’m his replacement.”

Beetlejuice opened his mouth to say something else, but Barbara cut in before he could speak, pushing him aside. She was probably worried he was going to say something rude, or flirtatious, or both, and either way it was not conducive to their goal. Beetlejuice made a noise of annoyance, but didn’t argue.

“We’re looking for a little girl,” Barbara dropped her voice to almost a whisper, “Juno brought her down here. She was – is - alive.”

The smile slid from the woman’s face, she looked worried.

“Who are you?” She asked, eyeing the three of them.

“We’re her family,” Barbara said.

It wasn’t a lie, exactly. In the brief time he had known her, Adam had felt like a pseudo-dad to Lydia. In week where Beetlejuice had transformed their home into a haunted house, the Maitlands had been there to made sure that Lydia remembered that she was still human, and not a ghost. They had made sure that she was fed properly, and went to bed when Beetlejuice would rather she stay up with him. Lydia was old enough to look after herself, sure, but emotions were high and the Maitlands had been worried about her forgetting to take care of herself. It almost felt like real parenting. Especially when Lydia smiled at them and wished them goodnight.

“And the demon?” The woman asked, nodding her head towards the man in question.

“He’s… Helping. We need to bring her home. She doesn’t belong here,” Barbara pleaded.

The woman’s face softened, she looked as worried as Barbara did. She stood, and Adam could now read that her sash read ‘ _Miss Argentina’,_ and moved to her right out of sight. The door next to the window opened, and Miss Argentina leaned out of it.

“Come quickly, then. Before Juno sees you,” She said.

The three of them followed her through the door. Barbara lead the charge, and Beetlejuice was at the rear. Adam wondered whether he was nervous, or just annoyed that Barbara had shoved him aside.

Miss Argentina, because Adam wasn’t sure what her real name was, lead them through a grey office space. Sad eyed ghosts sat in cubicles, filing paperwork or tapping away on computers. Most of them didn’t even bother to look up to see them go past. Of those that did, they seemed to quickly lose interest and get back to work. When Adam looked closer at them, he realised that the ghosts were all chained to their desks. Beetlejuice had never mentioned anything about working in the Netherworld to them. Was this hell? Did these ghosts deserve to be here? They looked like normal people to him. Miss Argentina, in particular, genuinely seemed to want to help them.

Unless she was leading them straight to Juno. Adam took a cursory glance back at Beetlejuice, but the demon didn’t show any signs that they might be getting lead into a trap. He also seemed to have snagged someone’s coffee, the mug read ‘ _Keep calm and carry on working’_ in bold red letters.

Similar phrases were found on posters dotted around the office. Things like ‘ _If you aren’t working, you aren’t paying off your debt to society’_ , and ‘ _Newlydeads need your 200 years of service, don’t let them down’_ , and ‘ _Juno is WATCHING’_. There didn’t seem to be any other decoration. A potted plant might be nice, Adam thought.

Miss Argentina led them to a small side room, and opened the door.

“In here,” She said, herding them inside, “I’ll wait outside, okay?”

Adam wondered what could possibly be in this tiny room, as the three of them shuffled inside. He could only see filing cabinets, and paper. _If this is Hell,_ he thought, _I expected there to be more dust._

But then he heard Barbara gasp in front of him, which brought him back from his musings. He looked over her shoulder, and Adam felt Beetlejuice’s hands on his shoulders so he could peek over too, the demons face uncomfortably close to his. But Adam didn’t have time to push him off, what he saw in front of him made him feel sick.

It was Lydia. Except, it wasn’t. She was sat at a small desk that had been crammed into this tiny space. She didn’t look up to acknowledge their presence, but Adam could see her eyes were glassy, the brown of her pupils faded to a dull grey. She was wordlessly sorting through papers, filing them into two boxes in front of her.

“Lydia?” Barbara was the first to speak.

Adam watched as his wife navigated her way through cabinets and boxes of papers to reach Lydia, and propped herself up on the table. Lydia, however, continued to work, ignoring Barbara. Barbara waved a hand in front of her face, repeatedly saying the teenagers name, trying to get her attention. Nothing. Then, in a moment of desperation, Barbara tipped the boxes in front of the floor. Lydia paused what she was doing, and sat motionless, with her hands still on the papers. She looked like she was patiently waiting to be able to resume work.

Adam was glad he didn’t have a beating heart, because he felt like it would be beating out of his chest right now. That didn’t stop the overwhelming sense of dread creeping over him though. He too moved forward, perching himself on the other side of the desk to his wife, and put two fingers on Lydia’s neck. A pulse.

“She’s still alive,” Adam said.

He moved his hand to rest on Lydia’s shoulder, wanting to comfort her even when he wasn’t sure if she could feel it.

“Then what is this? Possession?” Barbara sounded like she was on the verge of screaming.

“No,” Beetlejuice answered for her.

The Maitlands both turned their heads to look at him. For the second time today, Beetlejuice looked terrified. His eyes were wide, and the coffee mug had been dropped to land on a pile of papers, ruining them. Adam felt like he was going to be sick.

Beetlejuice’s voice sounded uncharacteristically quiet as he explained, “My mom she’s… She’s taken her _soul.”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Juno! You cant just sneak up on people and take their essence!

An usual sensation was eating away at Beetlejuice. Something he had been struggling to identify. The feeling had started as soon as he watched as his mom pulled Lydia through the portal to the Netherworld, and it had been eating away at him ever since. He felt like he was going to throw up, or faint. But this wasn’t like the time he had eaten that rabid squirrel, this was a wholly new phenomenon. He had never felt this way before.

But now that he stood here, in this cramped office space in the Netherworld, with Lydia mindlessly staring into the void in front of him, the answer had finally hit him: Guilt.

This was _all_ _his fault._ If he hadn’t pulled the stunt with Barbara’s exorcism, Lydia wouldn’t have gone to the Netherworld and pissed off his mom. Sure, she stabbed him in the back, which hurt a lot and ruined his chance at life. And that _was_ an awful betrayal that he had decided not to fully process yet, because doing so would require too much thinking and emotional theatrics.

But they were BFFFFs forever. BFFFFs forever didn’t let each other get hurt, not for _real_. And this… Was a fate worse than death. This was _real_ bioexorcism. His mom had pulled Lydia’s soul from her body and gotten herself a convenient new thrall, while Lydia’s soul was trapped… Somewhere.

The thought made the guilt eating up at him morph into something bigger and more powerful. It expanded past the confines of the pit of his stomach to overtake his whole body. Beetlejuice’s head swam, and his knees felt weak. He could see Adam and Barbara were trying to speak to him but he couldn’t hear them, it was like someone had replaced his brain with static electricity. Black spots were materialising in his vision until they completely obscured everything around him.

“Beetlejuice? Can you hear me? Beetlejuice? This is a really bad time for you to be having a panic attack, buddy,” Adam’s voice made it past the ringing in his ears.

Beetlejuice opened his eyes (When had he closed them?) to see Adam crouched over him (When had he sat down?), with two cold hands on his shoulders. He swallowed, trying to get himself under control. His hands moved to straighten out the tie he was wearing, the action felt grounding.

“Whasgoinon?” He said, trying to stand.

His legs still felt like they were made of jelly, and Adam gently and easily pushed him back down to the ground. Beetlejuice noticed that there were now papers scattered everywhere, and one of the filing cabinets had been pushed over. Had he done that? Barbara was protectively stood in front of Lydia, eyeing him carefully.

Lydia, however, hadn’t seemed to register the commotion at all. She just continued to stare blankly ahead, slowly blinking at intervals. Her dark makeup had smudged on her face, and her hair was sticking up at odd angles. Lydia had pretended she didn’t care about the way she looked, but Beetlejuice had seen how long much effort she put into her gothy aesthetic, and seeing her all messed up just felt wrong. That same bubble of fear and guilt started creeping up his throat again.

Adams grip on his shoulders tightened, and Beetlejuice turned his attention back to him.

“You’re freaking out, and I need you to calm down. Can you take a deep breath for me?” Adam sounded concerned.

“I don’t need to breathe,” Beetlejuice said back, matter-of-factly.

“I know you don’t, but indulge me ok?” Adam said.

Beetlejuice nodded, and followed along with Adam as they took a deep breath in, and out. The bad feelings started to retreat into just the pit of his stomach again, his hands stopped shaking, and he didn’t feel like he was about to loose control again. Adam and Barbara also seemed to visibly relax.

At some point, the hot green chick from the front desk poked her head through the door to ask what all the noise was about. This was super embarrassing and Beetlejuice tried to play off the fact that he was sat on the floor like an idiot by doing a casual, yet sexy, pose. But Adam immediately spilled the beans like the horrible wingman he is. 

“I’m sorry, Beetlejuice had a bit of a… Freakout,” Adam said, “We’ll clean up the mess, we promise.”

To Beetlejuice’s complete surprise, Green Babe actually looked sympathetic. He made a mental note that maybe being pathetic and helpless might be attractive sometimes. It certainly seemed to work for Adam.

“You poor thing. It’s horrible, isn’t it? Juno dragged her down here like this. I don’t know what she did to her, but she’s been like this since she got here,” Green Babe said.

“Beetlejuice seemed to have an idea,” Barbara said, a note of accusation was present in her voice.

Suddenly, three pairs of eyes were on him. Normally, this would be an excellent scenario. One he would actively seek out, in fact. But right now, Beetlejuice wished none of this was happening. He wished he could go back in time, and change what happened. He wished he was strong enough to fight off his mom. And save the day. And be best friends with Lydia again.

Beetlejuice stood, and straightened out his suit with his hands.

“So there’s a place,” Beetlejuice began to explain, pointedly not looking at the Maitlands, “Here. In the Netherworld. It’s where souls go after they’ve been exorcised. Exorcism is just the first part of death for the dead, but the actual process takes a long time, and the souls have to go _somewhere_ while they rot away to nothing. Or else they’d just wander the halls, screaming and… Stuff.”

“I’ve seen it,” Barbara said, her voice almost a whisper.

Beetlejuice looked down at the floor. He heard Adam shift to move besides her.

“And you think Lydia’s in there?” Adam asked, he sounded as scared as his wife.

Beetlejuice nodded. He wasn’t completely sure, but it was his best guess.

“I think so, unless my mom has gotten more creative with her punishments in the last millennium. My mom can’t exorcise her, only the living can do that, so she wont be… Like them. Decaying, I mean. But it’s… Torture, in there.” Beetlejuice bit the inside of his cheek.

“Have you been… Put in there?” Adam asked, that same tone as when he was trying to make Beetlejuice take deep breaths.

This time though, it felt condescending, like Beetlejuice was just some cornered animal about to lunge at their throats. He didn’t _want_ to talk about this. To anyone. He swallowed, hard.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re supposed to be trying to save Lydia, and if she’s stuck in there we need to go get her,” Beetlejuice said, his voice louder than he wanted it to be.

He moved towards Lydia, and hated the way the Maitlands both flinched when he got too close. He picked up Lydia by the waist and put her over his shoulder, as gently as he could. Barbara made a noise of protest, but he ignored it. Lydia, however, made no objections, and flopped over him like a ragdoll.

“Let’s go,” Beetlejuice said simply, and moved towards the door, which Green Babe opened for him.

When he emerged into the open office space of _Customs and Processing,_ most of the workers were not-so-subtly watching him from over the walls of their cubicles. The stares made him shrink a little, and he realised how ridiculous he looked with the body of a gothy teenager slung over his shoulder. Green Babe came to the rescue though.

“What do you think you’re looking at? Is it break time already? Oh wait, we don’t get breaks, so get back to work before Juno see’s you all,” She shouted across the office.

It was enough for everyone in the room to lower their heads again, and the sound of keyboard clacking, photocopiers and paper shredders resumed. Beetlejuice looked at her gratefully. She winked back.

“I have to go man the front desk,” She said, “You get that little girl back to her father, _alive,_ okay?”

He nodded back to her, and she shuffled away, effortlessly skirting around the cramped space of the office. Beetlejuice started heading for a door on the opposite side, and he heard the Maitlands hurrying to follow him, and he could feel their eyes on his back. They entered another long corridor, which fed into another, and another. Despite being banished from the Netherworld for centuries, Beetlejuice knew exactly where he was going. He had gone this way so many times before.

He wasn’t particularly worried about running into company, either. The corridors of _Customs and Processing_ were always empty, as his mother was the only demon on the floor, and the service ghosts were rarely allowed to leave the confines of their assigned offices.

“Where are we going, exactly? All these corridors look the same to me,” Adam asked.

“The Lost Souls Room, it’s… just past my mom’s office,” Beetlejuice said, and when they gave him a look he elaborated, “She likes to go and watch them rot, sometimes.”

“Your mom’s the _worst_ ,” Barbara said, which made him smile a little.

“She’s a demon,” He explained.

“Yeah, well, so are you and you’re not… Well, you’re not the same,” Adam said.

Beetlejuice felt a pang in his chest, unsure whether Adam meant it or whether he was just trying to say something nice. It wasn’t true though. He was a demon, too, like his mom. He couldn’t change that, no matter how much he tried to be like the humans he’d spent so much time watching. It never worked, and they always saw through the façade eventually. Lydia just took longer to see him as a monster, that’s all.

He focused on his grip on the teenager to stop that bubble of guilt from rising in his gut again. He wished it would finally just go away. Everything was so much easier before, when he didn’t have to think about things like consequences.

Luckily, they were coming up to their destination, so Beetlejuice didn’t have to spend any more time thinking about feelings. He poked his head around the corner, motioning with his free hand for the Maitlands to stop. Evidently, neither of them had any military training, because they also both poked their heads around the corner.

The illuminated frosted glass that surrounded his mom’s office door told him she was in, though.

“We have to be quiet,” He stage-whispered to the Maitlands.

They raised their eyebrows at him, and he shot them back a dirty look.

He shifted Lydia on his shoulder, and rounded the corner, trying his best to be careful with his footfalls. The Maitlands followed suit behind him. They had almost made it all the way past the office door when the handle started to move. Beetlejuice froze, as did the Maitlands. The three of them exchanged panicked looks, but it was too late, there wasn’t anywhere to hid in this long empty corridor. The door opened, and the figure of a demon stood in the doorway.

It wasn’t his mom, Beetlejuice thought with some relief. This demon appeared younger, and she was smiling warmly at him like he wasn’t carrying an unconscious teenager and being accompanied by two newlydeads.

Beetlejuice looked over her shoulder into his mom’s office. It was exactly how he remembered it. Unchanged in the centuries since he had last been inside, down to the familiar cold chill that emanated from the open door. Everything, Beetlejuice remembered, was meticulously organised, not a single thing out of place. He had always hated it in there.

Importantly, Juno didn’t seem to be in. Where was she?

“Lawrence? Is that really you?” She asked.

“Vesta! I… Uh, what are you doing in my mo- Juno’s office?” He asked.

“Inspections!” She cheerily wiggled the clipboard in her hand, “But you! You got your banishment overturned! That’s great news. I _knew_ you weren’t a total embarrassment. The girls upstairs owe me a coffee.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks,” Beetlejuice said, “Well, I better get goi-“

“Wait! What’s with the… Uh…” Vesta asked, motioning to the sandworm in the room, in the form of the unmoving gothy teen slung over his shoulder.

He turned his head to look at Lydia, trying to make it as casual as possible.

“Oh, this? Just something I brought from the living world. I thought you guys in Demon Resources might enjoy a little virgin sacrifice,” Beetlejuice said, ignoring Adam squeak beside him, “I thought we could celebrate my… Uh, return.”

There was a beat of silence, where Beetlejuice thought he might collapse again. But then Vesta clapped her hands together and smiled, this time revealing a row of teeth that looked like they belonged on a piranha.

“Oh, it’s been _so long_ since we had one of those!” She said, bouncing on her heels, “I still have some inspections to do, but don’t start without me! Ooh, I’ll bring my good candles.”

And with that, Vesta bounced off down the corridor in the direction the group had come from. Nobody relaxed until the clacking of her shoes had faded from their hearing. Only then, did the group breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Beetlejuice sagged a little. He was hoping his mother would be confined to her office and they could simply sneak in and out. This complicated things, now she could be anywhere.

“We should move,” He said to the Maitlands.

They didn’t argue, having apparently come to the same conclusion as him. It didn’t take them long to get to the Lost Souls Room from his mom’s office. The door was different to all the others they had passed. It was metal, and heavy, and looked more like it belonged on a medieval castle than in the processing offices of the Netherworld. The sight of it made Beetlejuice’s stomach churn, but he steeled himself.

“Okay, here’s the plan. We can’t keep the door open for long. So I’m gonna go in there and find Lydia. You guys should wait here, and open the door when I knock,” Beetlejuice said.

“You don’t have to go in there alone,” Adam said.

They were both looking at him with the same concerned expression. Beetlejuice wished they would stop doing that, he wasn’t some fragile piece of pottery about to break if they handled him wrong. He sighed in frustration.

“You’ll just slow me down, or get lost. I can track her down amongst all the other souls,” Beetlejuice explained.

It wasn’t the whole truth. Yes, he _could_ track Lydia’s soul, he’d been a Guide for centuries and tracking down specific souls was lesson one. But he also didn’t want to bring Adam or Barbara with him because he didn’t want to subject them to it. The Lost Souls Room was… Not pleasant. And he’d already given Barbara a glimpse at it before, and now the remorse was eating away at him. He mentally kicked himself for going soft.

“Just… Open the door as soon as I knock, okay?” Beetlejuice continued, trying not to keep his voice steady, “I don’t want to be in there any longer than I have to.”

The Maitlands nodded at him, and he turned to the door. He hadn’t been inside the Room since he was very young, and the idea of going inside voluntarily was daunting. He reached for the handle.

“As _soon_ as I knock,” Beetlejuice said one more time, pulled the door open, and stepped inside.

The Lost Souls Room was bathed in that same eerie green light that illuminated most of the void that surrounds the Netherworld. It stretched so far that there was no clear end in sight, the only object in the room being the door he had just come through, which slammed behind him with a thud. Suspended in the air, aimlessly floating around, was thousands of exorcised souls. They were in various states of rot, some looked like they had died yesterday, flesh still fresh. Others, those who had been here likely for centuries, were mostly bone. And all of them, or those that still had working vocal chords, were screaming. It wasn’t the type of screaming Beetlejuice usually enjoyed. It wasn’t _fear,_ not exactly. It was the noise from souls that were decaying into nothing. The screams of the Lost were screams of losing existence, screams of _being forgotten._ The noise was so deafening that Beetlejuice immediately grew an extra arm so he could clamp his hands over his ears while still holding on to Lydia.

But he had to focus. He closed his eyes and reached out his senses to search for Lydia. It didn’t take long, the rest of the souls in here were dead, and Lydia’s was still alive. Her signature stood out like a sore thumb. He took a step towards the direction she was in, and suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed.

There were lots of things that come with being dead, some good and some bad, but one big thing was that you were always cold. With no beating heart to pump warm blood around your body, no muscles creating heat with their movement, your body always felt excruciatingly cold. Lydia’s body, lying limp but alive on Beetlejuice’s shoulder, felt incredibly, comfortingly warm.

The other thing about being dead, at least for those that had been trapped alone for thousands of years in a torturous existence, is that it tends to make one do anything to be alive again. They couldn’t, of course. There was only one true way of coming alive again, but these desperate souls either didn’t know or didn’t care.

Beetlejuice hadn’t taken either of these things into account when he brought Lydia’s body into the Room. In one moment, the souls nearest to him were listlessly floating along. In another, they sensed the warmth from her living body and descended on her. They grabbed onto her legs, her arms, her hair with their decaying hands, trying to wrench her free from Beetlejuice’s grasp. Some of them clawed at him too, their jagged nails catching on his skin and pulling at his hair. Their screams got more desperate, and for a second Beetlejuice felt like he was a little kid again, trapped in here, not sure when he was going to be allowed out again. He felt like he was drowning. It took Lydia almost being pulled entirely from his grasp for him to remember what he was doing here.

“Get off her!” He shouted out at them, but it fell on deaf ears.

Beetlejuice used his powers to force them away from him. He pulled Lydia down from his shoulder and carried her bridal style instead. She had a bleeding mark on her face where a soul had raked its nails down her face, and the collar of her dress was ripped. The sight made him angry, and he used his anger to force an invisible barrier around him and Lydia. The ghosts pounded their fists against it.

He started moving again, not sure how long he could keep them at bay. Beetlejuice was powerful, especially when he was pissed off, but he had spent 3 whole days pushing his limits at the Deetz’s house, and the ghosts actively fighting against his barrier meant he couldn’t hold it indefinitely. Before he knew he was running, homing in on the signature of the one living soul in the endless abyss of the Room.

It wasn’t hard to find Lydia. Unlike the other souls in the room, she wasn’t floating in the air, she was curled up on herself. Beetlejuice couldn’t see her face, it was hidden behind her knees, but he knew it was her.

“Lydia!” He called out.

She didn’t look up, his voice drowned out by the cacophony of voices above him. He skittered to a stop, beside her. Beetlejuice crouched, one of his extra arms extending to tentatively touch her on the shoulder. Lydia flinched away from him when he did, almost completely pitching backwards. She flew out a hand to steady herself, and stared back at him with wide eyes that flickered between him and the body in his arms.

 _‘Beetlejuice?’_ Her lips moved, and he knew what she had said even though he couldn’t hear her voice.

He forced a smile, and held out her body towards her. Her expression moved from one of confusion to understanding, and she slowly extended a hand to touch her own face. There was a shift in the air pressure of the room, and the body in Beetlejuice’s arms writhed and gasped. The first time it had moved since he had taken it from the small side office of _Customs and Processing._ He looked down to see Lydia open her eyes, gasping for breath.

He moved to stand her up, suddenly uncomfortable with the way he was holding her. But her legs gave out as soon as she tried to put weight on them, and she weakly grabbed hold of his shoulder and tie to steady herself. It was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to walk out of here alone, so he awkwardly scooped her back up. She wasn’t looking at him, though, her eyes were fixed on the souls above her. Before she had been ignored by them, but now they clawed desperately at the barrier Beetlejuice had created to try to get to her.

He started moving back towards the direction of the door again, going as fast as he could without jostling Lydia too much. When he got to the heavy metal door he pounded on it with his extra hand. Once. Twice. Three times.

Nothing.

He pounded on it again, as hard as he could.

It didn’t open.

“Adam!” Beetlejuice screamed desperately, so loud his throat hurt from the effort, “Barbara! Open the _fucking_ door!”

He continued to beat at the door, feeling threads of panic creeping up his spine. Why weren’t they opening? Were they leaving him in here? Was this a punishment? He kicked the door trying to force it open, but it was useless. They weren’t going to open it. They were going to leave him in here forever and maybe this was the plan all along and they wanted him to stay here with these damned souls because he didn’t _deserve_ to be saved from them.

He could feel his control of the barrier beginning to wane, and a clawed hand broke through and brushed against his shoulder. Part of him wanted to let them take him, to rip him apart and then he wouldn’t have to think anymore. Have to _hear_ them anymore.

He felt a warm hand on his cheek, and looked down to see Lydia looking up at him, breathing heavily, face unreadable. The Maitlands wouldn’t leave Lydia behind to rot here. They loved her, even if they hated him.

He raised his fist to knock again, but the door swung open before his hand connected with the thick metal. It wasn’t the Maitlands, he couldn’t see the couple at all. His mother stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the fluorescent lights of the corridor behind her. The sight of her made his heart sink to his stomach.

“Hello, Lawrence,” Juno said, barely hiding the anger in her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment if you did!
> 
> I originally planned to write 3 chapters from 3 different POVs (Adam/Beej/Lydia) but then BJs chapter turned into... a doozy, so I'm splitting it into two.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at hellminth.tumblr.com


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